This bakery serves Jersey's best desserts — if you can find it

Deep in the heart of Ho-Ho-Kus lies the best bakery in Jersey. It has no sign, no storefront and no advertising. Look it up on Google Maps, and you'll draw a blank. As far as global positioning services are concerned, the place doesn't exist.

But that's because the spot isn't, in the conventional sense, a bakery. With a cottage kitchen license from the state, Bergen County resident Deanne Veliky is selling pastries straight from her oven to the public.

From pistachio doughnuts to carrot cake honey buns, Veliky's Black Magic Bakehouse is proving you don't need bells and whistles to serve great desserts — you just need passion, piping bags and talent.

Opening a cottage-kitchen in North Jersey

Veliky graduated from the pastry program at the Institute of Culinary Arts in 2015. Unlike most eager young graduates, though, she didn't immediately jump into a full-time job at a restaurant (despite having interned at a few during her time in school). Instead, she took a two-year hiatus from cream-stuffed capitalism to perfect her own sourdough recipe. From the get-go, she aspired to be an entrepreneur.

In 2018, with enough confidence and experience under her belt, Veliky opened Black Magic Bakehouse. For the first few months, she did pop-ups and sales to the local community. By the end of the year, however, the free-spirited baker (who also enjoyed rock climbing) felt the urge to move to California with her boyfriend. For a moment, then, her bakehouse operation was put on hold.

Once settled in California, Veliky returned to her Black Magic mission. She rented space in a commercial kitchen, but found the model and demand too difficult to manage — especially while simultaneously pursuing rock climbing. She began working at a bakery, Moulin, until deciding, three years later, to return to Jersey.

Small-batch, artisan pastries

The world was mid-pandemic when Veliky and her boyfriend made their way back to the Garden State. Since take-out operations, in 2021, were the name of the game, the economic climate was perfect for the dessert chef to resurrect Black Magic Bakehouse. This time, though, she operated her business as a cottage kitchen — rather than from a commercial one — to make sure she'd be able to maintain her vision of small-batch, artisan pastries.

Whether it was the state of the post-2020 world or the uniqueness of her doughnuts, Black Magic Bakehouse 2.0 took off as soon as Veliky launched it. Customers raved about her sourdough recipes, often selling out her stock. Under the new model Veliky implemented, buyers placed orders on Thursdays and Fridays for a Sunday pick up. The weekly menu was released on Instagram a few days prior.

Last week (after hearing KC Gonzalez of Tenmomi tell Matt Borgersen of Eighty Twenty, "Yo, dude. After trying Deanne's desserts, I just can't eat any others"), I decided it was time to give Black Magic Bakehouse a try.

Trying doughnuts, galettes and more from Black Magic Bakehouse

I met Veliky at Ridgewood Coffee Co. on a Sunday afternoon. She had long black hair, tattoos and piercing eyes — precisely as I imagined someone whose bakery logo was a dagger would. I shook her hand, and noticed three white boxes on the shop's wooden counter. She opened each of them, explaining the contents one at a time.

The first box Veliky brought contained three stuffed doughnuts; "Pistachio Honey Rose," "Lychee Vanilla" and a savory "Everything Bagel" with jalapeno-infused filling. Each was stuffed to the brim with her home-recipe pastry cream. Smooth, cool, whipped and light, the cream was the best I'd ever eaten. The flavors mixed into it were subtle, which allowed the distinct taste of the thin sourdough shell to coexist alongside them.

The next two boxes contained a savory peach and ricotta galette, a "Raspberry Pistachio Bearclaw" and a large glazed doughnut with a sumac and vanilla glaze. Each were light, melt-in-your-mouth testaments to the fact that restaurant quality baking could be done from the home — as long as you have the talent.

The best little bakery in Jersey

I left Ridgewood Coffee with a box of leftovers (well, except for the doughnuts, I crushed those) and the urge to order more Black Magic Treats. I asked Veliky how I could do that, to which she responded I could monitor Instagram — as aforementioned — for weekly menu drops, and click the "order link" in her bio for a Sunday pick up.

Not wanting to wait for more sourdough eats, I inquired if she was ever planning on opening a brick and mortar location.

"That's the goal," Veliky said, "But I don't bake every day. I like my free time, I like to rock climb."

So, until she decides to hang up her harness and carabiners, we'll all have to accept the fact that (for now) the best baked goods in New Jersey come from a humble little house in Ho-Ho-Kus.

And — besides the wait — that is totally OK.

Black Magic Bakehouse is a cottage-kitchen, take-out only bakery in Ho-Ho-Kus. To place an order with the company, diners can click here on Thursdays for a Sunday pick-up.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: This bakery serves Jersey's best desserts — if you can find it